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3rd IEF General Assembly 1999

Year

1999

THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM

Tuesday, 17 August 1999, Sidcot, England

Report

1. The third General Assembly of the International Environment Forum was
held in Sidcot, England, on 17 August 1999, with 13 voting members present
from Ghana, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland,
United Kingdom and USA, and 2 observers. In addition, 29 non-present
voting members with access to e-mail could participate in the assembly
discussions and vote for the governing board. A full list of voting
members, and persons present at the General Assembly is given below in Annex
1. The Annual Report of the Forum is given in Annual
Report 1998-1999.

2. The General Assembly was opened by the President of the Governing
Board of the Environment Forum, Arthur Dahl.

3. Officers of the meeting: In view of the small group there was
no formal election of chairman and secretary. The Assembly requested the
officers of the governing board, Arthur Dahl and Sylvia Karlsson, to serve
as chairman and secretary, respectively.

4. The agenda was modified to begin with the guidance recently received
from the Office of Social and Economic Development, as well as
consultation on the Annual Report 1998-1999
from the governing board.

Presentation of and consultation on the Annual
Report and the letter from OSED

5. The guidance from the Office of Social and Economic Development and
the Universal House of Justice received during the past two years was
outlined and the most recent letter from OSED was taken up in more detail,
lifting out the major points. This letter recommended that the Forum
concentrate on external outreach, influencing the various fields of human
endeavor with concepts and principles drawn from Bahá'u'lláh's teachings.

Election of the governing board for the coming
year

6. Election of the board: Out of the 44 voting members, 17 votes
were cast, 4 via e-mail and 13 in person. The board that was elected
consists of (in alphabetical order):

7. Michael Richards was originally elected but informed the General
Assembly that he was unable to serve due to pressing work in other areas.
The next number of votes on the list was taken, where Maxwell Ayamba,
Tahereh Nadarajah and Victoria Thoresen were tied, and a runoff vote was
held among these three. As a result, Maxwell Ayamba was elected to the
board.

Consultation on the revised statutes

8. The consultation that followed first focused on the statutes. A
revised draft of the statutes prepared in view of the latest guidance from
Haifa was circulated and discussed in some detail.

9. It was proposed that the statutes refer explicitly to the Forum having
e-mail members and functioning over the Internet, including governing
board meetings via e-mail, a moderated list server, and possibly general
members' meetings over e-mail, for example four times a year.

10. One thought brought forward was that it may not be necessary for the
Forum to be a legal entity able to handle funds. The Forum could
facilitate projects which would then be self-financing or be passed on to
other institutions. There would be no need for a budget except for some
secretariat expenses. The IEF conferences can be self-financing. If
members wanted to represent the IEF at meetings, they would have to assume
the cost for attending themselves.

11. Suggestions were made to include in paragraph 7.2 the explicit
mention of Bahá'í procedures for consultation and election. Change
"justified" to "explained".

12. In article 17, dissolution of the Forum should be by decision of the
annual general assembly (or a special one), which could be electronic, by
a 2/3 or 1/2 vote.

13. It was suggested that the statutes should be given to a Bahá'í with
legal experience for checking.

14. There should be provision for the method of adopting the statutes.
Any person becoming a member should agree to accept and abide by the
statutes and by-laws.

15. Internal By-laws can be adopted.

16. One comment for changing the statutes came via e-mail from one of our
members.

17. A related issue that was discussed was the concern addressed to the
board by one of the members that having the directory of the IEF
membership on the web raises issues of security. People could identify the
members if searching for Bahá'í on the web, and get addresses, etc. The
assembly concluded that there were still advantages for a "virtual"
organization in having the directory on the web. However the board might
consider consulting with the members beforehand to determine whether they
wished to be included in the web directory, given a partial listing, or
excluded.

Consultation on activities and priorities for
the coming year

18. It was proposed to have quarterly meetings over e-mail. The board
should check out the e-groups.com to see if that would make it easier. One
could ask members to moderate the meetings on themes to be proposed by the
board.

19. The Forum should create an idea bank of ways to take positive action
towards the environment, with suggested programmes for industrialized and
developing countries.

20. It is essential to approach this work with a spiritual vision and it
is an area where Bahá'ís have a unique contribution to make in balancing
the material and the spiritual. We should explore alternative terminology
for "developing countries" such as "less economically developed
countries".

21. The IEF web site should become an environmental portal, collecting
links to environmental sites and categorizing them to show that we are
all-inclusive.

22. The materials should not be targeted only to Bahá'í communities.

23. It was suggested that the board develop a five year plan, with goals
such as achieving recognition at the international level, establishing
relationships with other NGOs, etc. Then we can develop and tick off each
goal.

24. The board could issue statements on remedies we have to offer to the
world, bringing in the spiritual side.

25. We could identify someone to carry out a study of the most
significant Bahá'í-inspired projects with environmental benefits. These
could be written up as case studies, recorded on video, and incorporated
into education materials. We could collaborate with BASED or others. We
could define the criteria, make a list of desired studies, and ask members
to do them.

26. Other suggestions included producing educational materials on
environmental awareness for Bahá'ís and others which are flexible, that is
easy to adapt to various socio-economic and cultural settings, undertaking
book reviews, and providing advice on environmentally-friendly shopping.

27. The General Assembly closed with general appreciation for the
progress that the Forum has made in less than two years.